Jokes fall flat

His replacement of the word 'motion' by 'oration' while congratulating P.J. Kurien on becoming the deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha barely elicited a few laughs.

In fact, it made him the butt of many a joke in the corridors of Parliament.

Prominent among those taking digs at the Trinamool Congress Member was his own party colleague Dinesh Trivedi.

Apparently, Trivedi was only too happy to see O'Brien as the target of ridicule as the latter had taken several jibes at him after his controversial railway budget earlier this year.

Race for CBI chief

With barely two months left for A.P. Singh's tenure as director of the CBI to end, all eyes are on his potential successor.

While there are several IPC officers in the rank of director general who are eligible for the post, the government has hinted that it wants a replacement from within the agency.

This makes special director CBI, V.K. Gupta a prime candidate for the job.

However, contenders like Ranjit Sinha, director general of the National Investigation Agency cannot be ruled out yet as they have served in the premier investigation agency earlier.

The battle for the post looks set to become interesting.

CBSE has no issue

The Supreme Court's order to allow
students to access their Board examination answer scripts under the
Right to Information Act may have seemed like a lot of work initially,
but the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is no longer
complaining.

The verdict, apparently, has turned out to be a blessing in
disguise. This year, for the first time in many years, no student has
dragged the CBSE to court over the Class XII results.

CBSE, which did
not want students to see answer sheets, is obviously quite happy.

PC's trusted aides

His personal secretary and officer on special duty in the home ministry have joined P. Chidambaram in the finance ministry in the same capacity.

While IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre M.A. Siddiqui shifted as Chidambaram's personal secretary the very day the minister took up his new portfolio, OSD Ajay Yadav had to wait some days before being shifted.

Yadav, who still has some years of Central deputation left, had cleared multiple rounds of interviews to be appointed Chidambaram's OSDlast year.